PS Store Sales Charts: Gran Turismo 7 Laps Elden Ring in Europe as Horizon Falls Off a Cliff

I mean this is normal and you of all people would know this. Games are very frontloaded, HFW sold big to its audience and will now steadily keep chugging after discounts and what not. Elden Ring caught fire and broke the mainstream so it’s an anomaly

I like Elden Ring but I enjoy Horizon far mor. Elden just has no narrative. Game is wonderful but story and characters are too generic. Anyway, aside from Elden and Horizon, I have no interest in the top 10.

If we're doing a postmortem, I think it would have been a far wiser decision to release HFW during late April or early May. It would have been released in a much more polished state and it would have avoided Elden Ring's massive cultural impact. It will sell well, but Sony kinda screwed themselves on this one.

Looks good. Most games seem to find some success even with that much competition around. Strangers of Paradise doing better than I thought it could. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands up there while being a Spin Off. Everything but Ghost Wire Tokyo, apparently.
It's been said a bunch of time but this year is absolutely staggering. Although April seems slow for the most part.

The only ones that interest me here are Stranger of Paradise and WWE 2K22. And still haven't got them. Probably a few months from now when all the patches and stuff are out.

@RBMango I know where you're coming from but I still disagree. Horizon is a massive franchise. The first one sold over 20 million copies. How many brand new IPs can claim that? Horizon doesn't have to hide from any releases imo. Even though Elden Ring is much bigger than Forbidden West, Forbidden West is still doing good on its own.

I wonder how well Horizon is actually selling. Sony is usually proud to come out and boast their games have sold X million copies within the first few days, or first few weeks.

@jcordeiro Sony should be updating us on actual sales figures very soon, if previous exclusives are anything to go by. If it doesn't, then that's a pretty bad sign, and it might have underperformed — but I doubt it.

Elden Ring has definitely cannibalize Horizon sales and that's not really something shocking, since GT7 is in a completely different genre it is not affected in the slightest.

Next time for Horizon 3 (PS5 exclusive🤞) they should take a hard look at what's around because it definetly matters if you want your game to have maximum buzz.

They released Horizon at a really bad time.
I'm one of the many people that put buying the game on hold because Elden Ring was released.

@JAMes-BroWWWn Forbidden West will no doubt sell well, but I think it could have done much better in a less busy month and away from a juggernaut like Elden Ring. Comparing it to Zero Dawn's release, that was a brand new IP at the time that had a lot of hype behind it and it had enough distance away from Breath of the Wild so that its sales didn't get cannibalized. Now that the honeymoon phase is over with the newness of the Horizon franchise, I think it would have been a much smarter move to stay away from other games so that it had its dedicated pocket of time.

I really don't get why Horizon is doing so bad

Not sure its fair to blame Sony for dropping Horizon when they did Elden Ring was the game that was delayed from its original release date in 2021, and it would be a terrible look for Sony to move a high profile first party exclusive from its release date if game was ready to launch. It would look like they had no confidence in their product

Elden Ring should be taught at schools.

Justice for Jack (and CHAOS)!!

I am waiting until i actually get a ps5 before getting any more new games. So maybe i will get a game this holiday season. We'll see.

@naruball Whats to say it did? Might have sold well physically 🤷‍♂️ We should know fairly soon though as Sony will have to release sales figures

All that said, Elden Ring releasing at 45 pounds compared to Horizon's higher retail price won't have helped Sony's cause here

Not surprised. Elden Ring is on 3 platforms, but 12million already left me surprised. Sekiro did not even reach 7m life time so I do not think Sony expected that and we can't say they should have moved it. I even expected hfw to outsell elden ring since 20m vs 7m sekiro sales.

Even then, they have been quiet of any ps studio game sales. How many ratchet, returnal, miles, demon souls remake copies sold? The thing is most people are buying the ps5 version so it can't be because not enough ps5 are out there, right?

It'll be interesting to see how GT7 does in the coming months. While GT Sport was live service, GT7 is the first Playstation Studios game that's part of Sony's major push into live service.

@Grumblevolcano better than bf2042

@Grumblevolcano I'm much more curious if they'll reveal what GT7 made in microtransactions.

@Rob_230 I don't think it would matter so much. They could come up with a simple excuse, like the delay will give the team some time to deal with some minor performance issues and everyone would quote Miyamoto ("A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad").

@munstre You may wanna keep in mind that you're in the minority here. The game is highly praised by critics and gamers alike. A game's sales are not indicative of its quality.

Elden ring being a great game and it being multiplat, gives it more of an audience to sell to. While hfw, albeit 120+ million ps4/5 in the wild, only has the one platform to sell on. So I'm sure everyone who wanted hfw at launch, bought it; while everyone else will wait for sales.

I wonder what price the ps5 "greatest hits" will sell for and when they'll come around.

@naruball Yeah thats also a fair point. I guess they had a bit of an issue because they may have had to also push GT7 and Ghostwire Tokyo back - although maybe that in itself wouldnt have been a bad thing either as people seem to be complaining about Sony having a barren line up this year (despite the fact there have been 4 exclusives this year if you include Uncharted - 5 if you include Sifu - and May would have had Forspoken if it hadnt also been delayed).

I purchased HFW for £70 that’s fine.
Of course I played and completed the HZD and the DLC.
Not totally sure and I think maybe because it’s like the same again but will the dial turned up, I have currently left HFW probably about 25% through.
Just doesn’t seem to have the same staying power for me HZD had.
Also I think HZD seemed to flow better overall for me. Just the way it is I guess.

@naruball And if @munstre wants more examples, Just take a look at Neo The World Ends With You or Guardians of the Galaxy 2 High Quality Titles that didn't sell as expected (even if Guardians managed to rebound afterwards)

Game Sales should never be a indicative that a game is good or not. Neither are critic reviews. the best critic is yourself alone

There might be an increase in Horizon sales once more people have finished Elden Ring, though I could probably do with not getting another massive open world game straight after...

@Pat_trick Cant deny the truth of that.
I did it the other way around and did over 130 hours of Horizon first, before getting stuck into ER. I certainly dont regret that choice at all, its one of the best games ive played, and is certainly the best looking open world experience yet.
Despite many many issues with ER, what it does well is SO special you can forgive it many issues you would slay a lesser game for having. Ive only just defeated goldrick, so ive lot more to go yet, but its a title that certainly gets under your skin - a truly special game like we havent seen since botw.
Whilst we all knew elden ring was coming, its appeal beyond souls fans was not a given, and I dont think many people expected it to be the phenomenon that it is.
Its a shame for Horizon that its released at a time where its utter brilliance is somewhat deminished and over shadowed by such an extraordinary title, but I suspect its sold a ton, and was so popular, most people bought it at release.
Its strangely ironic that zero dawn, which I really rate too, was also a little over shadowed by the release of Breath of the Wild, another special game changer. Guerilla have been a little unlucky with timing I think!

Horizon fell down because of Elden Ring and it’s pretty steep price. Once Sony put it in a few sales it will start to approach the numbers of its predecessor.

I had a feeling something like this would happen when Elden Ring got delayed a week after Horizon. I'm sure Horizon sold fine but it can't be denied how much of a juggernaut Elden Ring turned out to be though. It's well deserved too I finished it last week and wow it kind of blew my mind! Fromsoft should be very proud of their work. Easy GOTY contender for myself.

Horizon £70, Elden Ring £50. It's clear for me the reason why one game's sales tail off compared to the other one's...
But I think that's part of Sony's strategy moving forwards. Get the hardcore fans to pay full price and then sell it to the masses with a sale 6months plus down the line.

a game that came out in February is now in the 8th spot in April why is that odd🤦‍♀️

@Titntin I completely agree with you.

FromSoft clearly doesn't completely understand open world yet, so they fell into some pitfalls that other companies fell in the past. But the game's highs are so high that we're able to look past the flaws.

The timing is a shame. I had a blast with Zero Dawn and I'm sure Forbidden West is another amazing game, let's hope it has long legs.

This article makes it sound so much more dire than it probably is. What was the stock situation like for ps5 in America and Europe for march because Horizon is going to be like Miles where it’s jumps high in the charts every time there’s a ps5 drop. There’s no universe where WWE and FIFA in America would be ahead of it if it wasn’t for that.

@ShogunRok it’s not really like it was with the first horizon on ps4. Forbidden West is on both systems but like Miles most people are going to wait till they can get a ps5 to buy and play Forbidden West so it’s going to be awhile before a full sales picture can be formed

Horizon released to the wrong time because Elden ring is a generational masterpiece. I’ll definitely be picking up horizon in the summer though.

@AyanamiReign I hope you're right, though I get the impression that a lot of the sales come from people who buy the popular game (/the hot item), no matter what it is. After the hype dies down, it's unlikely that that group will give a game a chance.

@munstre

"Hopefully the unfavourable comparisons to the reception that Elden Ring got, has made Sony realise that they can't get away with pumping out these formulaic franchises. Especially when they want to charge £70 and Hermen Hulst is saying things like: "we make games that matter". I expect much better things from them going forward than HFW."

"So? I don't get what your point is. I never said sales are an indication of quality or anything like that."

You may wanna re-read what you typed.

Elden Ring being so loved honestly shocks me. I own both HFW and ER and have enjoyed HFW so much more. HFW is a 9 while ER is a 7.5 at best. I have over 70 hours in Horizon and around 20 in ER.

Sekiro and Bloodborne are definitely better games yet didn’t get as much recognition. The undeserved high critic praise of ER really added to the sheep.

@dark_knightmare2 One Thing I Can Appreciate About Horizon Forbidden West That Alot Of People Seem To Be Sleeping On Is The Many Ways You Have For Exploring Like You Can Swim Fiy Climb And Glide. You Can't Really Do Any Of That in Elden Ring And Yet People Are Trashing Horizon

I decided to go with elden ring because i just love the dark souls games (apart from ds2) and sekiro..i'll purchase hfw at some point in the future when it hits a sale..the first game took me a long time to get round to playing as it just didnt grab me so i'm not expecting the 2nd one to tickle my bits either..not saying they are crap games as they clearly aint but they are just not in my must have right now list..

@Areus i dont even think that comparing the two games is a good idea..they are both different enough and both are exceptional at what they provide..i myself prefer the elden ring world and the combat it provides..i think that both games compliment each other and both are stand out titles..

Is this insight into why Returnal and Miles Morales are being added to Spartacus? Returnal because it's not selling anymore, and Miles Morales because it is selling so much they've made more than enough on it so can stand to free it for the person who hasn't bought it yet (me).

@PhhhCough I think the PS5 greatest hits will be $25. Adding half of the next-gen price hike to the current price.

Elden Ring did to Forbidden West what Breath of the Wild did to Zero Dawn... Guerrilla Games needs a better release calendar.

The first Horizon released days before BotW and is Lifetime over 20 million. FW releases right around Elden Ring is no big deal imo. And actually Sony NOT shifting either release speaks volumes to the confidence they have in their teams. I for one went FW first and will get to Elden Ring down the road. I can't be alone in that.

Poor Horizon. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

Horizon's issue is a week later Elden Ring came out and took away all the attention. I got both because i could afford it but i if could only chose one i would have picked ER like i think many else did. Another issue is Horizon was a mess visually with many glitches and issues with them, it was a good month before i really sunk some time into it when the issues were fixed and sorted. Another thing what hasn't helped Horizon as shown is GT7 what despite some uproar is a fantastic racer. Overall the odds were too against Horizon and it should have been delayed to this month where its quieter and the issues would have been fixed for day 1.

lmfao to WWE and GTA 5. The human species appears to continue to D-evolve

@AhmadSumadi The game has plenty of story and many great characters and side stories its just like with Souls and Bloodborne it isn't laid out like a "normal" game.

@Pat_trick Except Fromsoft understands the open world genre more than most of developers today. They understand the value of exploring and discovering things in the world. To say Fromsoft "Clearly doesn't understand open world games" is blatantly false. Hell their linear titles such as Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro are better at exploration than open world games right now

@Areus I love exploring underwater it’s such a unique thing for an open world and makes the world feel even deeper plus it’s absolutely beautiful. The soundtrack is another thing overlooked it’s one of the best gaming soundtracks in the last few years just banger after banger

Horizon is competent game but lets be real its just too formulaic,story is dissapointing,Guerilla needs much better writers,$ony needs something fresh or atleast go back to 60 dollar price cause

I really liked HFW but it wasn’t a patch on the first game. Lost its authenticity sadly. Still good but a bit silly. GT7 is brilliant. The first racing game I ever bought and I don’t regret it. Haven’t played Elden Ring. Doesn’t really interest me.

@Toypop It's getting praised because of the fact that it doesn't show any quest markers or tell you where to go. On the other hand I can understand people googling for side quests since it's a massive open world and the game doesn't exactly give hints for what they have to do or where to go for some of the quests like the main campaign does. If they were to give us a slight hint on where to go(And they can go and should be creative with it) for some characters that don't give us directions then I think it would be better overall without removing the exploration and discovery aspect.

@naruball well I am a few trophies away from getting the plat in Horizon. I’m trying to speed run the last 10-30% of the game to get to Elden Ring.

This wasn’t the experience I had with Zero Dawn which I immensely enjoyed getting that 100%. For me, the graphics and voice acting / character capture are top notch, but the writing, gameplay mechanics, lore and especially enemy ai are kinda 7/10 here - nothing to write home about.

I even put it down for a week to play Returnal tower / co-op and when I came back, I was like - oh yah - this gameplay isn’t really exciting.

It’s good as an open world narrative that looks amazing if that’s what people want, but it wasn’t as good as or even close to better than Returnal, Miles Morales, Cyberpunk or Ghost on PS5 IMO. I’d put it in the Ratchet, Guardians and Assassins Creed tier.

@naruball I wonder how many people don't want to buy it on PS4 and can't get hold of a PS5. I'm in that boat. I just won't buy new games on PS4 anymore.

I think people are already tired to ubisoft-like open world games (with all of the many icons in the map) like horizon. Now more people choose an open world games that trust players to find the world secret by themselves, like zelda botw and elder ring.

@naruball "I really don't get why Horizon is doing so bad"

Besides what everyone above said maybe some people were swayed by it's metacritic. What I mean is HFW has a lower review score and user score than the first one, from a distance it seems like it's a worse game then the original (again just looking at numbers).

I haven't played it so I don't know but maybe there are some people that are hesitant to spend that 70+ and will wait for a price drop. What isn't up for debate is that Elden Ring has impacted it's sales in some small or big way.

I bought both ER and HFW and couldn't stick with either. I get caught up in the hype and think that I'll finally enjoy another open world game every time a big one releases and then I check out 10 hours into it. I can see why HFW fell off.

@Nepp67 That's your opinion.

Which by the way, you backed up with zero facts.

I'm gonna give you a solid example of a failing. The catacombs are repetitive in design and so are some bosses. They could've cut down the numbers and made better focused bosses and dungeons.
But like most developers that develop open-world games they went for quantity.

It's not the whole game and I think it's a fantastic game overall, but it's clear to see the signs of repetition that could've been cut down.

@Pat_trick Except I did in my later comment and even the comment where I responded to you. DS, BB and Sekiro don't hold your hand and Elden Ring is similar to those titles. Hell I don't even need to give you facts cause it's all over the internet of how well done the open world is. Are the dungeons repetitive, yes I agree, they are copy and paste along with most of its bosses but that doesn't mean Fromsoft "Clearly doesn't understand open world games." They don't hold your hand, there is no markers on the map, they manage to make the world interesting with its lore and environmental storytelling. Let the player explore, not let the world tell the player where to explore and that's where Fromsoft succeeds compared to most open world games. That's also why I consider Elden Ring my most favorite open world game.

@dark_knightmare2 Imagine If They Made a Megalodon Machine For You To Fight In Ether a Potential Dlc Expansion Or for the 3rd Game.

What's up with the horizon hate here?! geez
Some of the elden rigns fans here are really acting high and mighty meaning. Newsflash you can enjoy both games and both are great

@Radekbejbl1 yeah one of most unique and best written sci fi stories in gaming is formulaic which is why reviews called it out oh wait no reviews and people who have actually played the game said the opposite.

@Lobbo95 yeah it’s annoying they haven’t even played the game but they sure love to tell people how it is lol. I’ve platted both and they are both amazing games but I enjoyed Horzion more because it does things that I like in gaming

@Areus oh hell yeah that would be awesome

@Juanalf it’s got the same exact review score on opencritic as the first with almost every review saying it’s better than Zero Dawn in every way. It’s going to be an evergreen title every time new ps5 stock comes in it will jump the charts and besides it’s not doing bad

@SteveRogers1 lol this is some of the worst fanboy drivel I’ve ever seen. None of those games flopped and cod will still be on ps nobody cares about the other few games activision releases

@wiiware not even remotely true not to mention you can turn off every icon on horizons map which you would know if you actually played the game

@Rural-Bandit lol elden ring runs way worse than forbidden west but you are sitting here trying to act like because horizon is getting small patches it’s a super buggy game smh I’ve seen it all

Odd that the focus of the article is the fact that Horizon fell off like you would expect it to instead of the fact that Gran Turismo 7 is doing good. Obviously it got mentioned, and sure, Horizon's position should get mentioned, but it's just a little odd.

Oh well. I'm still loving Horizon Forbidden West and that's what actually matters. It'll be just fine in the end.

Can't say this wasn't predictable. Both Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West are fantastic games in their own rights.

The problem was Horizon didn't really break any ground and ended up being yet another rather forgetable, generic AAA open world game in the same pile as Ubisoft games. While Elden Ring became another generational classic joining the likes of the Witcher 3 and Breath of the Wild.

Personally, I hope the biggest lesson publishers learn from Elden Ring is to stop treating gamers like a bunch of idiots, and that people like a good challenge as long as it's fair and properly skill based. Same thing for massive open worlds full of uninteresting nothingness.

To be frank, what surprised me most about Elden Ring is that I HATE artificially difficult games as I have a job now and can't sink hours grinding away bosses. So I stayed away from all Dark Souls games in the past.

I only gave Elden Ring a shot because I was morbidly curious about its stupidly high 10/10 scores everywhere to the point it was becoming one of the highest rated games of all times (right next to Zelda and RDR2). Surely, such a difficult, unapproachable game couldn't get this kind of ratings?

Boy was I right. Is it hard? Yes. But it's absolutely not hard in an unfair way, and it absolutely rewards critical thinking and analyzing bosses more than low-effort hack n'slash games. And personally, it's this fair difficulty that makes beating Elden Ring bosses infinitely more rewarding than anything in Horizon Zero Dawn.

@Rural-Bandit I meant small in files size and the sense that their just little quest fixes or nerfs. It’s the best looking open world game out there and it runs better than most open world games out there. I platted both it and Elden and had a way smoother experience with horizon if anything Elden should have been delayed

@Toypop Yeah you see that's usually a thing about "Souls" games in that it has a big community who love sharing tips and discussing how you do things, some players also feel overwhelmed and want a guiding hand. Also these games can lock you out of content very easily so many like to know what steps to take to avoid such things, for instance ER has an optional boss fight who lore wise is a massive deal and is even in marketing heavily but you can lock yourself out of facing her by doing certain things before facing her.

Honestly you clearly don't know much about the playerbase and are judging us based on evidence you made up to suit yourself.

yeah yeah , Horizon Forgotten West is forgotten ; does this mean we could get another killzone now ?

Too bad about Horizon. It’s a great game, once again terrible timing!

I have zero interest in any of the games mentioned except Horizon. Currently at 60 hours and absolutely loving it.

@Serge_G Totally see where you're coming from but in my case, I actually won't touch Elden with a 10 foot pole. I despise games whose point is just to be insanely difficult. Always hated all the Souls games for that reason. I dont find inherently 'hard' games enjoyable at all. On the other hand, I'm LOVING Horizon. While its doing nothing new with open world mechanics, the story is fantastic which will trump all other aspects for me almost everytime. Its why I liked Zero Dawn way more than Breath of the Wild (and I'm a Nintendo fanboy). Story is everything.

Sad to see HFW not do great. it's a very special game and I loved every minute of it. But at least a generic multiplayer didn't outshine it, just an other great single player game which isthe Elden Ring.

@RBMango Wasn't there only a few days between Zero Dawn and Breath of the Wild release dates?

Also the Switch launched with Breath of the Wild so that would have been some pretty serious competition to contend with.

I think the reality is Sony needs to get more Ps5's on shelves. The fact that you still can't walk into a store and buy one really hurts their sales.

@JimbobLink You're absolutely right. I don't know why I remembered them being released weeks apart.

Both games are great, but have different approaches to how they learnt from breath of the wild imo. Horizon Forbidden West decided to take some mechanics like the glider and climbing, while Elden Ring took the exploration and essence of discovery from Breath of the Wild. Personally, I will always support From Software as long as they continue to treat gamers with the respect they do in terms of quality and value.

The real deciding factor here is the price I think. When you can get Elden Ring for £40-45, why would you pay £60-70 for Horizon Forbidden West? Unless you're a super fan it makes sense to buy the cheaper of the two and wait for the more expensive one to drop in price. HFW is already down to £50 at most retailers.

@invictus4000 I'm 1,000% with you on being against artificially hard BS kind of games, and like you, never played a Dark Souls game in the past. They just weren't for me.

Truth be told, I only tried Elden Ring because of morbid curiousity at the insane amount of praise the game was getting. I've skipped games in the past that I felt weren't for me.

But a game that is being consistently ranked as one of the top 5 greatest games of all time by critics? (Currently sits at #4 on OpenCritic, below BOTW, RDR2 and Mario. Horizon sits at spot #100+) Christ. I honestly felt like a game like that demanded I give it a chance.

Boy was I glad I gave Elden Ring a chance. And after playing it, I can truthfully admit that calling it "artificially difficult" is just being ignorant. The game is fair, but combat requires the player to actually THINK over just button mashing. And the only reason it might feel difficult, is we've become too accustomed to games that treat gamers like idiots with non-existent difficulty curves because they are too afraid of posing a real challenge.

You're absolutely right that this isn't for everyone. Some people just don't games with any kind of difficulty. Some people just like to relax and prefer easy, approachable games like Horizon or a Kirby / Yoshi game. But for those up to the challenge, beating a single boss in Elden Ring will be infinitely more rewarding than beating an entire game like Horizon. Because it'll will truly feel like you f*ck*ng EARNED it. And this is exactly why Elden Ring is crushing Horizon in sales. Because it's giving something gamers have desperately missed from the old days: an actual challenge that offers a meaningful reward.

I'm thoroughly enjoying Ghostwire Tokyo, far more than expected. It's actually kept me from finishing Horizon: Forbidden West. I'm also just a tad burned out with open world games at the moment, and while GWT is technically open world, it's not feeling like the usual open world games that can grow boring by being overly filled with content.

It's not without its faults though. The skill tree is pretty bland, the powers are mostly lackluster, and all the upgrades are about as bad as a skill tree can be. That said, the atmosphere, bright and colorful visuals, and decent story are really capturing my attention. I also really enjoy exploring this version of Tokyo. The traversal mechanics are not entirely unique, but they are a ton of fun. Making a game fun to traverse through is one of the highlights of gaming for me.

Anyone saying that HFW is doing poorly is delusional, simple as that.

The game was released in February and it's still within the top 10 digital PS downloads (PS5 = #8-US, #9-EU. PS4 = #10-US). The game is also still selling well on online stores such as Amazon.

Just because ER is doing better doesn't mean the other one isn't.

They gotta stop releasing Horizon games the week before masterpieces of the genre.

@HeeHo Elden Ring Was The Game That Got Pushed Back It Was Supposed To Have Came out In January

@David187 I would bet that if the comparable Zelda BotW2 (Open world third person action adventure, sequel on the same platform) will release in next February, it will still be selling much better in the following March and April than HFW did. Reason: New gameplay mechanics, which differentiates it from BotW1, while HFW is more of the same. Very nice looking, but also a bit boring.

@ReadySlayerOne „I’d put it in the Ratchet, Guardians and Assassins Creed tier.“ That‘s a strict and fair assessment, seriously. Very nice looking, but very safely played, without edges and not ingenious. Meeting people with these attributes on a party, you can have some fun for an evening, but you won‘t miss them, not inspiring at all. I am too old to waste my time with uninspiring things.

Face it. Horizon Forbidden West is a total flop. Guerilla Games will be lucky not to be shut down after this.

@Milktastrophe A new multiplayer killzone would easily save them .

yep

@Max_the_German I really like that analogy. Unfortunately this what happens when you have a very skilled team tasked with making a game for everyone. Did a lot of things real well, better than most - but nothing truly exceptional.

They really, really - reeeeeeeeally dropped the ball with machine overrides, that could have been their thing. Super underwhelming and almost worse than the previous title.

I’m also too old to waste time and I won’t buy another Horizon on launch - at least CDPR made me feel something, and gave me such an experience to throw money at them again.

@bimboliquido the irony is strong with this one. Thanks for the laugh.

But if you feel like providing evidence to support your claim that it's not the minority that feels that way, by all means. Go ahead. I'll wait in my echochamber.

@Juanalf excellent point. I'm sure that also played a role.

@Apfelschteiner It's hard to tell, isn't it? But that didn't stop Elden Ring, so who knows?

I feel dirty finally buying GTA 🐄 V 😳

@ReadySlayerOne fair enough. There are people who played and loved it and others who felt it wasn't as great as they hoped it'd be. That goes for every game. Doesn't it?

Personal experiences vary even for the best games. If I had a penny for every time I heard GTA 5 was a disappointment compared to GTA 4/ San Andreas/etc I'd buy a house by now. Yet it's the best selling game of all time. Same with God of War (ps4). I've read countless posts condemning the approach Santa Monica chose, saying there's too much emphasis on story, that it's a different Kratos, that they got bored, etc. Yet the game not only far surpassed previous GoW games, but it became one of the best selling ps games.

@JJ2 I also did it, and now I feel better. It helps if you think of how you will enjoy it compared to how most people do it. This game is so big, everybody can enjoy it on their own way.

@ReadySlayerOne Yes, I can also feel the intention of CDPR with their games, and I love it. Not „perfect“ (whatever this is), with edges and courage to try something unsafe, ambitious and ultimately better than what was before. The risk to fail in some aspects, while still delivering a fantastic package, is what makes CDPR games so great and fascinating in my eyes.

@Serge_G "And this is exactly why Elden Ring is crushing Horizon in sales. Because it's giving something gamers have desperately missed from the old days: an actual challenge that offers a meaningful reward."

Following that logic, why did the first Horizon game easily beat all the previous Souls games in sales?

Pretty much how a game goes.
Bought by the can't wait , will pay full price...i want it now brigade during the first few weeks , then a decline in price , bringing in the chug along discount crowd

@naruball Because it's all about ticking boxes nowadays. Elden Ring finally became open world and thus worthwhile in the eyes of the many. HFW is a milk toast game. Lame story, characters, gameplay and especially quest design. There was something better out there and people bought that instead.

It's interesting to see all these comments...

Almost no one had anything to say about GT7..

Can't wait to see what's next for Elden Ring.

@Bismarck I disagree about better, because again sales are not indicative of quality. But I definitely agree that the fact that the game is open world was a huge draw. I constantly see people complaining about open world games and arguing that no one has the time to play such long games, but in reality open world games tend to sell exceptionally well.

@GamerDad66 I think it's because the success of Gran Turismo 7 is not that surprising. Now, if it were to make the top 10 6 months later, I'm sure many would comment on that.

@naruball l know what you mean - I’m not into GTA at all but loved Cyberpunk. I think there are a lot more people feeling underwhelmed like myself. I can totally see why these numbers dropped and lost out to the likes of Stranger of Paradise and Fallen Order.
I’ve been telling people to wait until they have a PS5 or go for Elden Ring New.

@dark_knightmare2 Most people play the default option, and turning off the pointer icon isn't an ideal solution if the game is designed to have it.

@GamerDad66
GT 7 appeals to a different type of gamer. Not the moaning type.

@wiiware it’s how my friends and I played it’s all about giving players options which is never a bad thing. There’s plenty of unique landmarks that help you explore the world and it made for a hell of a time.

@SteveRogers1 dude it’s good more people get to play bungie games unless you’re a fanboy I don’t see how that’s bad. Also Phil Spencer straight up said COD will continue to release on PlayStation it’s not even debatable you can google all the articles that talked about it. Sony can still have one of their live service games become popular it’s not like just because COD is on the system people won’t play them they will if one of them turns out good. The fact is Sony is still the market leader and that’s not going to change anytime soon because their presence and mindshare in gaming is just too big. It’s good MS is doing well just like Nintendo it makes for better gaming and there’s no reason to worry about any of the big three

@Areus Your Capitalisation Is Demented.

Anyone else wish Col_McCafferty was still around to see this?

@Max_the_German
Absolutely. I like the way you think. Everyone their own way and path. 👍🏻

@dark_knightmare2 In the end it's good that both type of games exist, we rarely get open world games like zelda botw & elden ring, so I wish more open world games should follow their example, not in difficulty, but in not handholding the players.

I haven't played HFW but I've watched many (hours) videos of gameplay ... the game is pretty but combat is quite lacking, enemies and the bosses lack AI and many just stand there/get staggered consistently. Even the Apex predators seem dumb af.

@Frutersi that’s not true at all the a.i is consistently on the move and on your a** using every attack in their repertoire with most machines having like three or more different ways to attack and you can knock off those parts to disable those attacks. I would think you would know that if you really did watch hours of gameplay. Horizon has one of the best if not the best combat in a open world action rpg I really can’t think of another open world game that has better combat.

@Fragile especially almost three months later and with this for sure going to be an evergreen titles like miles morales

@Juanalf I'd guess the PS5 would have been out for around 6 years by the time Horizon 3 is released, so I'd be very surprised if it wasn't a ps5 exclusive.

@naruball One word: "approachability".

Elden Ring was a runaway success when Dark Souls wasn't for the same reasons Monster Hunter World was a world wide phenomenon when any of the previous entries weren't. The franchise made itself more approachable.

Some examples are the open world (it's now a more popular genre than ever), dramatically increased number of respawn and fast travel points which reduce the time it takes to try again bosses after defeat, and a far easier to pick up learning curve that makes the game easier for newcomers. That's not to say Monster Hunter World or Elden Ring aren't hard, they are just easier to approach to the masses.

Narrative, open world games in 2022 are a dime a dozen, as Ubisoft can tell you. Open world games that are actually able to pull off a challenge without feeling impossible or hard to approach? Now that's a rarity.

@dark_knightmare2 with lots of slow mo, stun lock, smoke grenades etc many times the machine just doesn't have much opportunity to attack. Regular non boss enemies are pushovers. And really fast regenerating health means that I rarely see anyone in serious trouble. Re: combat many people have agreed its not good, but I guess that's your opinion. Combst doesn't seem to be much of a challenge at all, alloy looks way OP

@Frutersi I really don’t know where you see people say the combat isn’t good because that’s just not true heck most reviews talked about how good the combat was. The only pushover enemies would probably be burrowers and chargers but they are supposed to be. If you’re good aloy could look op but she’s not she dies in like two or three hits even on normal most of the time lol.

@Serge_G that I can agree with. In other words, its not that "And this is exactly why Elden Ring is crushing Horizon in sales. Because it's giving something gamers have desperately missed from the old days: an actual challenge that offers a meaningful reward."

@Max_the_German that makes 0 sense & is a silly argument! you only have to look at the charts for this week to see how silly & over the top this whole story was.